Eat savory and stay slender

This month marks the 101st anniversary of umami, loosely defined as that savory, or meaty taste you get from some cheeses (parmesan is an oft-used example), animal meats and bullions (chicken stock, experts say, is especially rich on this front), soy sauce, and mushrooms. Pretty geeky that I know this, right? I’ll confess: I’m a woman obsessed.

Since 2000, when scientists discovered a taste receptor for glutamate—the amino acid from which the flavor derives—umami has been the subject of enthusiastic study. That originates, mostly, from the effect researchers believe it has on appetite and satiety: While umami is certainly present in high-fat foods, it’s also a major component of extremely diet-friendly ones. Tomatoes and green tea, for example, rate exceptionally strong on the umami scale.

Here’s where things get interesting: Since the flavor is so tied to savory and hearty meals, when it’s present in lean foods, researchers are starting to believe it may have the ability to trick the body into thinking it’s had something richer and more calorie-dense than what it actually got.

A 2008 study in the journal Physiology and Behavior, for example, found just that. Mice who drank water enriched with MSG (which was developed specifically to hit our umami receptors) ate less food and gained less weight than those who were fed the same amount, but not given the MSG-water mixture. Getting umami–even just in water–helped induce satiety.

Further, a second research study, this one from Johns Hopkins University, compared consumer reactions to hearty meals (like lasagnas and burgers) prepared with ground beef to those made with diced portabella mushrooms. Not only was there no difference in taste preference, but volunteers felt just as full after both meals, despite the fact that the mushroom eaters had consumed significantly less fat and calories than the meat ones.

I think this provides an interesting way to re-frame cravings for certain rich foods–maybe it’s not the fat and the calories that we’re looking for, but the savory taste. Given the fact that I’m literally about to have a hot lunch date with a tomato sandwich, I’d say there might be something to this. Delicious.